What is the Reggio Emilia philosophy?

Reggio Emilia is a small town in northern Italy, recognised for its innovative, researchful and reflective approach to early years education.
The first school was set up by the people of the town after World War Two when it was felt that a new kind of education
was needed. Loris Malaguzzi was a young teacher working nearby who heard about the school and travelled there to volunteer part time. He ended up providing
dynamic leadership to the schools which grew to encompass 23 schools and 13 infant-toddler centres in the municipality of Reggio Emilia. The schools are based on
respect, responsibility and community through exploration and discovery in an enriching and supportive environment.

It is a philosophy which values the child as strong, capable and resilient with an innate capacity and deep curiosity for learning.
The role of educator is one of lifelong learner, continually reflecting on and redefining their understanding of how children learn.

How do we work as a Reggio inspired school?

We seek to take our own inspiration from the Reggio schools, in a way which suits our children and the culture we are part of. We place great importance
on mutual respect, listening and discussion. We seek to teach children to resolve their own conflicts. We work in partnership with parents to best support
children's learning as we believe that this helps all children succeed. We believe in children as active constructors of knowledge, working in partnership with educators
to move learning forwards. Our curriculum is child-led and challenging, allowing children to spend extended
amounts of time within a project or area of interest. As educators we believe in truly reflective practice, individually in our reflection journals and
as a staff team in our meetings. Staff take part in study tours to other countries, such as Italy, Sweden and Denmark and school regularly hosts teachers from abroad.
This provides opportunities for sharing good practice internationally and ensures we are continually learning and reflecting in dialogue with others.

Within our approach, documentation such as photographs, videos and children's words is vital for developing our insight into how children
learn. Our documentation serves a variety of purposes such as celebrating children's learning
within the school and with parents, reflecting as educators, and ultimately leading to a deeper theory and understanding.

The environment

Within Reggio, the environment is key and is sometimes referred to as 'The Third Teacher', meaning that learning should continue within it.
Our environment is carefully organised and developed to ensure that children can learn independently. The environment is fluid and constantly changing according to
children's interests, our project work or to reflect a special event we are celebrating. There is space to allow long term projects to be started and revisited within the environment,
whether that be the creation of a wildlife area or large scale construction of a castle as part of story telling work.

We aim to provide a beautiful, natural environment with objects and activities developed for and by the children which provides for extended and open-ended discovery and play.

Our project work

Children and adults working together in collaborative and extended projects is a feature of the schools in Reggio Emilia. This allows
children to explore a topic or area of interest in great depth, discussing and making their own hypotheses, collaborating with others and
reflecting. It also allows children to explore many different ways of working with the same idea, expressing themselves through art, music,
movement, dance, photography and many more in what Malaguzzi referred to as 'The 100 Languages of Children'.

We are currently in the middle of a 2 year, international project on 'Growing' and our work is published each year. We also take part
in other projects throughout the year, collaborating with professional photographers, actors and musicians as well as carrying out our own research projects.
Our 'Project' page gives more detail and examples of this unique way of working which has many benefits for children and educators.